Need a new CD player w/ coax and optical out. Will run coax to a Schitt Bifrost DAC.

Seems like cheap CD players are gone; DVD players are cheap now but I don't want to put up with their long slow load times. I'll be replacing a Marantz cd67SE. Can't seem to find a transport unless it's a ballbusterTRANSPORT and costs much more than my DAC - which I don't want it to. I found a Onkyo cdp online for $200 - as transport only - that should suffice? Right?

Well it depends on what you expect from your system. Don't let anyone tell you the transport has little to do with the quality of sound.

On a higher level , I use an Audio Research DAC8. A few years ago I traded up my Maratz SA11-II that I was using for a transport only , for an Ayre C5mp , again used as a transport only on red book CD's , the improvement in sound quality was staggering. I use the Digital XLR terminal to link them up.

I guess that is what I wanted/not wanted to hear. I'd like to get away "cheap" if I can, since I am satisfied with the Bifrost. But if the transport makes a significant difference - guess I'd better do some tryouts. Probably will need to order alternatives, with generous return policies, and compare.

Schiit Bifrost. I paid $300 for the ERC-1 several years ago. I use the digital coax output from the ERC-1 to the digital coax input of the Bifrost. I think there are inexpensive cd players that will work OK as a cd transport, many of which can be improved by just dampening the cabinet. One thing for sure, your digital coax cable should be at least 1.5 meters long. I initially had one shorter and experienced distortion.

how is the slot-loading mechanism? I don't usually care for those and a couple times I've had to reboot my computer to get a disc out.

Note: I have a half-meter digital coax cable by Kimber Kable, and I have suspected that it is ever so slightly less good sounding than the "placeholder" cheap Belkin cable I started out with - which is 2 meters...

Go for a digital music player with out the mechanism, such as BDP-105, SD card DSD/Wav/APE/Flac player QA660, put your music on SD cards, hard drives and so on, you will stop to worry about the source equipment.

How does the transport effect sound if it's connected to an external DAC? For example I have a Music Fidelity V-DAC II connected to my Blu Ray Player via optical. With it's asynchronous connections it shouldn't matter what transport I use. Or am I missing something?

How does the transport effect sound if it's connected to an external DAC? For example I have a Music Fidelity V-DAC II connected to my Blu Ray Player via optical. With it's asynchronous connections it shouldn't matter what transport I use. Or am I missing something?

Much to many people's surprise, just like a turntable, the CD player is both a mechanical and an electrical interface. So the best solution is playing files from a SS memory solution through a high quality dac or a modern hard-drive that is very quiet and well buffered, like say a Mac Mini.